Unemployment benefits at risk under GOP move

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- A disagreement among Republicans in the Legislature over whether unemployed people in Wisconsin should have to wait a week before receiving benefits is putting an extension of coverage for jobless people at risk.

The Republican-controlled Legislature approved the waiting period in the budget passed last month. But in a bipartisan vote on Tuesday, the Senate removed it as part of a bill approving extending federal unemployment benefits for 13 weeks.

The Assembly on Wednesday agreed to the unemployment extension, but reinstated the one-week waiting period.

Since the bill passed in a different form than what the Senate approved, it must pass there again.

A spokesman for Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald refused to say if or when the Senate would take up the bill again.